Hypocrisy and Zero Tolerance Policies

“There should be a zero tolerance policy in the NFL (National Football League) when it comes to domestic violence involving women and children” was the opinion of one commentator on the September 15 Anderson Cooper 360 CNN news report. These comments came in response to the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson scandals in the news this past week. Rice allegedly knocked out his then fiancée (now wife) several months ago. Peterson allegedly whipped his four-year-old child with a switch and drew blood.

Every case of domestic violence is a case of criminal proportions that should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, be it abuse of a female or the abuse of a child. Today’s news stories make clear that the situation is grave and that incidents of domestic abuse are not on the decrease.

But these sad commentaries on current domestic violence cases are not the only thing that troubles this pro-life leader. In fact, they are merely the tip of the iceberg. Allow me to examine what is beneath the veneer of such reporting by the media.

I believe that these tragic situations receive the attention of the news media because they are not only horrendous, but assist the media in hiding behind the false concern they express for women and children in such cases as they blithely look the other way when it comes to expectant mothers and their preborn children. Mainstream media does not define the act of abortion—the ultimate child abuse—as an act of violence because the law states that these preborn babies are not human beings. By the same token, the abortionist who maims or often kills a patient is rarely exposed by the press unless, of course, a practitioner as vile as someone like Gosnell can no longer be ignored.

One has to wonder when these purveyors of hypocrisy will finally confront reality. Exactly what will it take for reporters to exhibit concern for all children and all women, regardless of the ages of the children or the alleged constitutional rights of their mothers? Today an expectant mother can seek the intervention of a third party to take the life of her child and we simply call this exercising her rights.

This is why a discussion of abusive acts toward some, but not all, is not only hypocritical but an exhibition of a callous disregard for human life that begs another more fundamental question.

After 40 years of killing babies before birth and calling it a woman’s right, should we be shocked to see born children and their mothers beaten and abused in other ways? Violence of any kind toward innocent persons breeds more violence. And today we see the tragic result.

So where can we find the truth that will free mankind from this enslavement to political correctness and moral blindness?

I suggest that the beginning of the answer resides in these words, taken from the Vatican document Dignitas Personae, “There are those who say that the moral teaching of the Church contains too many prohibitions. In reality, however, her teaching is based on the recognition and promotion of all the gifts which the Creator has bestowed on man: such as life, knowledge, freedom and love.”

When a man—meaning any single one of us—responds to God’s gifts by respecting the rights and dignity of others, society is transformed. We progress from the barbaric to the civilized, from the violence of selfishness to the self-sacrifice of the loving—one person at a time. We learn as individuals that accepting the gifts God gives to each of us and sharing those with others literally creates a culture of life and love.

We move away from hypocrisy and toward genuine zero tolerance for attacks on human dignity at every stage of life from creation to death.